The Doctor and the Student
by WeepingclovnCosplays
Summary: The Doctor lands on Hogwarts grounds and meets a helpful Hufflepuff-student. Together they travel through time and space while trying to make technology and magic work together.
1. An introduction

It was a cool summer night, most students were en bed by now, as they should be. Sara was not. She was usually not one to break the rules, but tonight she couldn't sleep. She had been very stressed with her final semester at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, so she had decided to take a walk to the whomping willow where she had spent most of her days lately, studying her potions. Her black and yellow Hufflepuff-robe was moving playfully behind her in the wind, the hood pulled over her long blond hair.  
Hogwarts was quiet, and for a while all she heard was the sound of the owls hooting in the forest. Just as she had almost reached the willow a strange whooshing noise broke the quiet whispers of the night. It seemed to have come from somewhere by the lake. Sara, curious as she was, decided to check what had made the noise. As she reached the lake, her eyes caught a blue box, with the words "police box public calls" written on it with letters that lit up blinking into existence in the dim night. As it became solid a tall man with messy hair and wearing a suit stepped out of the box. Sara thought it a bit strange, she hadn't seen anything like it before in her years as a witch, but nothing really surprised much since she had received her letter... Still, Hogwarts didn't tend to have many visitors, seeing how it was hidden from the muggle-world.  
She could hear him muttering confused to himself, so she stepped a bit closer to get a better look. As she wondered who this man was and what he was doing here, she accidently stepped on a branch. It broke with a loud crack. The man stopped talking and looked up.  
"Oh, hello!" He said, his face lighting up in a friendly smile. She gave him an awkward wave.  
"Hello?" She said with more than just a hint of uncertainty. "Uhm, excuse me, sir, but what are you doing here?" She asked stepping a bit closer to the man. He looked a bit confused.  
"Ah, well... that's just it..." He said. "Where is here?" She hesitated a bit, biting her lower lip. She wasn't suppose to say, in case he was a muggle. Then again, he seemed to have come from nowhere, which wasn't a very muggle thing to do and Hogwarts did have all sorts of spells preventing muggles from ever coming close to it.  
"This is Ho-." She started, but was cut off by the man who had taken a couple of quick steps towards her. "Where are my manners? I'm the Doctor!" He smiled at her and held out his hand.  
"The Doctor?" She asked and shook his hand. "Yes, me, the Doctor. And you are?" "Just the Doctor?" She asked with a slight smile "I'm Sara Jones." The Doctor smiled. "Hello Sara Jones. Nice to meet..." He paused and looked at her clothes."... you, What are you wearing? Never mind. Where am I, again?" "It's... my school uniform." she looked down at herself and her robes "And you're at my school," She looked up at the Doctor with a smile and said:  
"Hogwarts."


	2. The Student

The Doctor looked around. "Hogwarts? _The _Hogwarts? The School for witchcraft and...? Nooo, that can't... I, but. Hogwarts?" He looked very confused at Sara who nodded at him with a kind smile. He turned away and mumbled to himself: "But that's not possible. It's not real, it's fiction!" He turned around and reached into his inner pocket.  
"Doctor? Are all right?" She asked stepping closer to him, placing a hand on his arm. The Doctor pulled out what looked like a little metal stick. He pointed it at Sara and a blue light shined from the tip, it blinked and buzzed with a crackle.  
The doctor looked at it with a frown. "It doesn't like you, Sara" He said and looked at her. She frowned at him with a puzzled looked "I'm... sorry?" she asked, sliding a hand inside her robe, letting it hover lightly over her wand. You could never be too careful, she thought to herself.  
"That's not your fault. Well, listen, I'm gonna have a look around." He said, turned around, and started walking. He took a few steps, then turned his head and asked, with a smile:  
"Are you coming?"  
She smiled and ran up to him. She didn't know why she did it, she knew it was probably best if she didn't let him wander around here by himself, but that wasn't why; there was just something about him.  
"I better. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't know the place." She said in a light tone as she had reached his side. They walked around outside for a bit. The Doctor occasionally took out his _Sonic screwdriver_ as he called it, and pointed it at things, like a bush, a wall or a door. He looked more and more frustrated every time, muttering things like: "Not real" and "Magic? Nooo..."  
She looked at him for a while, a nervous feeling inside her. It grew stronger and stronger every time he would whisper about magic.  
"How did you get here? I mean... Muggles aren't suppose to ever come here, not even by accident. At first I didn't think you were, but you must be... Seeing how you don't at all believe... in... magic." She hadn't noticed, but she had drawn her wand as they had walked and she was now holding it in her hand. She knew this wasn't good at all. No-one outside the wizard community could know. As she waited for the Doctor to answer her question, she counted herself lucky she was good at most spells, including memory erasing ones.  
He looked at her, then looked up. "Well, you see..." He said, as they turned a corner and they found themselves back at the blue box.  
"This is my T.A.R.D.I.S. it's a, uh, time machine. I was in the time vortex, looking for a place to land. I tend to go to London, but there is something great about Scotland... Then suddenly I came across a place, this place, a place the T.A.R.D.I.S. couldn't, well, wouldn't, go." He smiled at Sara. "I didn't get it, it was just a big old ruin! I flew around it, trying to figure out why the T.A.R.D.I.S. didn't like it, and then I saw it!" He said with an intense expression. "What did you see?" Sara asked."A sign! A sign saying: DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE. So I got curious!" He said and smiled. "I forced the T.A.R.D.I.S. closer, and I found out that there is actually a big shift in perception! A, well, a sort of shield!"  
"It's a protection spell." She said, then looked at him "Wait, hold on... time machine?" she asked. There were few things that surprised her, there were few things she didn't believe possible; time travel was one of those things.  
He Looked at her with a sly smile. "Jup, time machine. It's bigger on the-, well, you'll see. But! The shield, your, um, "spell", it's interfering with the navigational systems. I spent so much energy trying to get in, and now, well, now I can't get out..." She smiled an apologetic smile at him. "It's not _my_ spell. It's way beyond my level... we'd had to go to the library." she said the last part mostly to herself. This was all very exciting, even if she didn't really believe in it all.  
"Library? Yes, great! Let's go there." He said and clapped his hands together. She smiled and nodded at him before leading him to the castle. "We have to be quiet. Students aren't really allowed outside of bed this late. the paintings usually aren't that much of a problem, but if we run in to Peeves we're screwed." she said before opening the big doors and stepping inside the warm castle. "The paintings aren't...? Wait, who's Peeves?" The Doctor asked slightly confused. "The school's poltergeist. He loves to play cruel pranks on the first-years and overall get people in trouble- not so much the Slytherins, 'cause he's afraid of their house ghost." she said matter-of-factly. "Forget I asked..." The Doctor sighed.  
"This way." Sara said and led him up some stairs and down a hall that led to the moving staircases. It was getting darker and darker as they moved away from the windows. The Doctor stopped and looked at the moving staircases rearranging.  
"They like to change. It sometimes get a little frustrating if you're in a hurry." The Doctor looked at Sara with a knowing smile. "I see. It's a machinery working on a semi-random timed interval, making it seem as if they "like" to change. Nice, but a bit primitive." She giggled and shook her head at him. "They are bewitched to move as they please." She said with a smile as she stepped onto the one currently connecting to their floor. "Well, I come from a place with technology a lot more sophisticated than this, but I can see how it could look like magic to... Well, a, uh, hrm, human..." She once again giggled at him.  
"fourth floor, please." She said to the staircase. They normally didn't listen, but it never hurt to ask she thought. After a few seconds the staircase moved and connected them to the fourth floor. Sara smiled brightly as she got of the stairs. "An elevator would have been faster..." The Doctor muttered to himself.  
Sara was about to open the hallway door, when she turned to the Doctor. "You're... not human?" she asked hoping he wasn't a werewolf, they tended to scare her. "Nope." He said, like it wasn't a big deal. "I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Galifrey, in the constellation of-" Sara opened the door. "_Lumos_." she said and the tip of her wand lid up casting silver light around the otherwise pitch black hallway . She looked back at the Doctor. "Sorry." she whispered "I didn't mean to interrupt you." The Doctor tried to hide his disappointment. "Oh, it's oka- Ah! A piece of wood with a voice activated LED light at the tip. Right..." "Riiight." she said as they walked to the library.  
It hadn't taking her long to locate the right book, but after about 20 minutes or so of reading _Hogwarts A History,_ Sara closed it in frustration. "Ugh! I can't find anything useful in here. It only says what we already know!" She whisper-shouted. "And that would be...?" The Doctor asked, slightly frustrated. "No-one can apparate or disapparte to, from or within Hogwarts grounds." She said, looking up at him. The Doctor looked frustratingly questioning back. "It's like... teleporting." She explained, and then changed her expression to a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to counteract that spell... Maybe we can... levitate it or something?" she asked, mostly to herself. "Yes!" The Doctor shouted. "Levitate it! Oooh, that's brilliant! I was too busy trying to dematerialise, that I didn't even consider...! Let's go!" The Doctor said and ran towards the door. Sara grabbed her wand and ran after the thin man she had only just met hours ago.


	3. The Doctor

The Doctor didn't look back as he ran through the halls, not even when he thought a man in a painting near the staircase was following him.  
Why hadn't he thought of moving through space manually, instead of travelling space/time-wise? _Daft, daft old Doctor_, he muttered to himself as he opened the castle doors and ran outside in the cold, dark night towards the TARDIS.  
He heard the door open and close behind him, and he started to slow down. "Oh, right, the girl. Sara." He thought to himself. He always loved how people reacted when they saw the inside of the TARDIS. Then he grew serious. Why did she think that she was a witch? What was this place, and what was that energy barrier that seemed to work like a perception filter? Well, one thing at a time: First to move the TARDIS!  
"Doctor! wait... up!" Sara called from somewhere behind him. It wasn't long before she caught up with him though. Her cheeks were slightly pink from both the running and the chilly air. Her breath was visible from her mouth when she breathed.  
The Doctor looked at her with a smile. "Well, come on then." He said, and opened the TARDIS door.  
Sara stepped inside the TARDIS her blue eyes scanning the big control room she had entered, the hint of a smile playing at the corner of mouth.  
"Yeah, I know." The Doctor said with a grin. " It's...?" He continued, waiting for her to mention the size of the control room opposed to the outside of the phone box.  
"...very space-y." Sara said in an impressed tone, still looking around. Not what he had expected. "Outer-Spacey or space-y size wise? Well, I guess both, really, but... That's it, space-y?" He added in slight disappointment and slighter disbelief. She shrugged at him with an apologetic smile and then added "I... like the colour?" "Oh, she likes the colour!" The Doctor said to himself, then looked around.  
"Well, here goes nothing!" He said with a laugh, running around the console, pulling handles and flipping switches. All about making the TARDIS as material as possible, while counteracting the energy barrier, messing with the controls. The entire room shook, as the machine tried to stay and the Doctor tried to move it. "Come on, come oooon!" He yelled, running clockwise round the controls, resetting the stabilisers, then counter-clockwise to adjust the flight pattern.  
Sara fumbled on her feet whenever the TARDIS would shake too hard.  
"I should probably tell you that no muggle-technology works on Hogwarts." she said as she regained balance. "M-maybe that would interfere with your... time machine as well?" She asked the Doctor. "This isn't... Muggle technology..." The Doctor replied, wondering why she kept calling him that. He then pulled a large handle and yelled:  
"Hold on!"  
The TARDIS shook violently, then stopped. Everything was still. The Doctor looked at Sara, a smile forming on his face. "Shall we go and have a look then?" He asked, and then walked towards the door. She smiled brightly at him "Yes!" She said with glee as she made her way over to him and the door.  
"And for the record: I know this isn't muggle-technology, it's much too impressive, I'm just saying... I mean... it's still _is_ technology, right? It still could have some sort of influ-" the Doctor opened the door, "-ence..." She continued surprised. The TARDIS was hanging far above the castle and now that they were outside the barrier, it looked like an old ruin again. Sara was smiling brightly at the Doctor's side.  
"I still need to get further away for the interference to stop completely, but at this distance, the TARDIS is, well, stable, at least..." "Stable is good." Sara said not taking her eyes off of the ground below. Her lips were still parted in a big smile. "Can we go higher?" She asked. "We can go anywhere you want!" The Doctor answered enthusiastically. "Any_when_ too. Time and space. Well, Time And Relative Dimension In Space, to be exact. " Sara moved her gaze from the ground below to the Doctor, an excited expression on her face, but then it grew darker. "What about school?" she said disappointed in a voice so low she almost whispered it. "Well, that's the beauty of it, isn't it?" He asked with a smile, almost expecting her to have understood before he asked. "What is?" she asked. "The T in TARDIS. Time. We can go anywhere in time and be back in time. Well, back here in time. The same time. The exact same time we leave, well, here!" He explained with a big smile. A grin almost matching the Doctor's grew on Sara's face.  
"Promise?" She asked with voice almost spilling over with joy.  
"Promise." He answered seriously.  
Then his face lit up. "So, where do you want to go?" "Everywhere! Anywhere..." She paused for a while looking around the TARDIS. "What about dinosaurs? Can we see them? Alive I mean. Or space. I've always wanted to see the stars, sort of." "Well, those are kind of two different directions." The Doctor grinned. "But, tell you what. Why don't we-" he said and pulled a handle, "let the TARDIS decide?" The entire room shook, as the TARDIS dematerialised. Suddenly it started shaking more violently, making alert-like sounds. Sara was once again shaken off balance and fell backwards. "Ouch!... Doctor?" She asked from the TARDIS-floor. "Just a second!" The Doctor shouted, fumbling around the console, trying to get a grip as he stabilised the flight a little.  
"The TARDIS doesn't seem to like you!" He mumbled at Sara, a bit frustrated.  
"Aaaand...Got it!" He said with a manic smile, as the TARDIS suddenly stopped completely. "Now, let's see what I can do about that alarm..." He added, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the ceiling. It buzzed, and, as it extended, the sound of the alarm lowered, until only the sound of the sonic was left.  
"Eh.. I'm beginning to think to suspect none of your... things... like me." Sara said still sitting on the floor "Was it something I did wrong?" She asked in a half-joking, half-serious tone.  
"What? Oh, no...or, Well..." The doctor said, slightly confused. "Let me just..." He mumbled, as he pointed his sonic screwdriver at Sara. It buzzed oddly, then sparks came out of it. The Doctor pulled his hand back. "That's... strange..." He said with a worried look on his face.  
Sara frowned at him. "W-what's wrong?" she asked slowly standing up.  
"Oh, watch the stairs." The Doctor said, pointing behind Sara. Sara turned around, casting a brief look at the stairs directly behind her, then taking a few steps away from them before looking back at the Doctor with a confused look. "Doctor..."  
"Right." He replied. "The, um, the sonic, it, it can't scan you, Sara. I don't... I simply don't get it. And the TARDIS can't seem to, well, accept you? But why not..." He asked, almost to himself, as he turned away, wondering.  
Sara looked to the floor, her eyes flickering as if she was in deep thought. "Magic." she whispered. "Magic! It's not just Hogwarts that doesn't work with technology... it's magic itself! I never thought of it that way 'cause I've never used magic outside of school... That must be it, mustn't it?" She said louder looking at the Doctor "I haven't got enough magic to out-power technology, like Hogwarts does, but enough for the... TARDIS? Not to like it."  
"Oh, again with the magic...?" The Doctor sighed frustrated. "Listen, it can't-" The Doctor stopped himself, when he saw a screen on the console.  
Sara broke a sigh as well as she drew her wand, casually waving it around as she spoke. "Listen, Doctor, if this really is a machine that can go a_ny_where, then you must have seen so much! Is it that hard to believe that magic is... look, I can prove it too. I've got my wand." she said pointing at it as if the Doctor wouldn't have seen it if she didn't.  
"No such thing. As. Magic." The Doctor said resolutely. "Now come on!" He said and ran towards the door.  
Sara pointed her wand at the Doctor. "_Accio Sonic screwdriver_." She said. The Doctor's screwdriver flew out of his pocket and into Sara's hand as the TARDIS rumbled in protest. "Yes. there. is." She said with a playful smirk.  
"Oi! You can't just... That's not...! A simple magnetic link, nothing more, now give it back and let's go!" Sara shook her head and smiled at the Doctor as she walked up to him and handed him his sonic.  
"Okay, let's go then." She said as the Doctor tucked his sonic back into his suit.


	4. White Sand

Sara carefully stepped outside of the T.A.R.D.I.S., not sure what to expect. Whatever it was, it definitely hadn't been this. This was so much better. They where actually on a different planet! They were by the sea, it appeared. The waves were still and the water a deep red, yet clear enough for her to see the strange tiny silver fish underneath. The sand they had landed on was white. Completely white, like paper. Even though it seemed to be night, as the sky was pitch black with lots of starts, Sara had no problem seeing, even all the colours appeared to be in daylight, then it hit her; the forest on her right side was casting off light from their pedals. She didn't know, but she was smiling brightly.  
"Wau..." She sighed, completely taken aback by the wonderful sight in front of her.  
The Doctor stepped out behind her with his hands in his trouser pockets. "So." He said. "Do you like it?" He added with a smile. She turned around, looking at him. "Oh, yes! It's fantastic!" She excitingly grabbed his arm an pointed at the night sky. "I mean... Look at the stars! They're completely different! And there are two moons! Two moons. And the sea... Bloody red!" She said enthusiastically. "Hey, mind your lang-" The doctor said, cutting himself off, when he realised that the water was just that. Sara giggled with delight, looking at the small waves.  
"So, you noticed the stars?" The Doctor asked. Sara looked up at the stars that were so different from the constellations she was used to seeing at night. "Yeah... I take astronomy as one of my classes. I don't really believe in the future-telling part, but I've always liked looking up at them, knowing them... Makes me feel like we're not alone in the universe, you know?" The Doctor walked up next to Sara and looked up. "That's why I started doing what I do. Travel around to distant places, meet different people..."  
"Doctor... Where are we?" Sara asked after a while, not really sure if it mattered that much, it just mattered that they were here and that it was unbelievable. The Doctor looked around. "I... Have no idea." He said, slightly disappointed. Sara shrugged happily, nothing could ever spoil this. "Oh well, maybe we can check on a map or something when we get back?" The Doctor looked at her. "Get back to where?"  
"To here, of course. We haven't come all this way for us _not_ to exploring, have we?" She asked, as she had already started walking along the beach. The Doctor started to follow. "Oh, I like you." He said with a nod of approval. Sara grinned at him.

They walked for a while, admiring the glowing forest and the white beach. Suddenly Sara noticed something blue in the distance and stopped in her tracks. "Doctor! look!" She said, not sure if she could believed what see saw. The Doctor looked in the direction Sara was pointing.  
"What?" He said as he started running. "What!?" He said again as he reached the T.A.R.D.I.S.. Sara wasn't far behind him. "But... we've only been gone for, what, an hour or two?" she said in disbelief. "We can't have walked all the way around yet... can we?" she asked, looking at the Doctor, sort of expecting him to know. "Well, I... Guess?" He said confused.  
He walked to the middle of the beach, then squatted to get a better look at the planet. "The curve of the beach indicates a small, Well, small-ish planet." The Doctor said with a wondering expression. He stood back up and jumped a few times. "Gravity seems to indicate a larger planet, but something doesn't add up..." He mumbled.  
Sara watched him jump and check the planet, then her gaze wandered to the forest, it seemed to go on forever. "Maybe it's flat... Like people used to believe the Earth was in the old days..." The Doctor looked at her, she felt his eyes on her, but she didn't take her eyes from the deep forest.  
"But we never went over the edge." He pointed out. "No, this is..." He stopped as he looked down.  
"Sara?" The Doctor said. She tore her gaze from the forest and looked at him. "What?" He walked up to her and looked her in the eyes. "If we have walked all the way around the planet and back to where we started..." He said in a low voice. He then pointed in front of the T.A.R.D.I.S.. "... then where are our footprints?"  
Sara looked down at the sand, it was completely bare, just like when they first arrived. "Gone... maybe the ocean took them?" She asked and deliberately took a few steps towards the Doctor, keeping her eyes on the prints she had left.  
"But the sand isn't wet." The Doctor responded. "And neither is the T.A.R.D.I.S.." He walked in deep thought towards the water. Sara sat down in the sand, keeping one eye on the footprints and one on the Doctor. She let her fingers run through the sand. It felt sort of soft and slightly warmer than the air.  
The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a little glass. He then bent down and filled it with the red water. He walked back to Sara, holding the glass with the red water in front of his face, studying it intensely.  
"The water didn't erase our footprints." He said to Sara, holding out the glass, so she could see the strange swirl in the red water. She looked at it, noticing the stir in the glass, then looked at the Doctor. "It's moving." She said, then looked at the sand.  
"I... Don't understand. Why does moving water in a still glass, which is a little strange by the way, mean it wasn't the sea that did it?" She asked. The Doctor held the glass to his mouth, then blew into it. Sara an expression of glee on her face as she looked at the red substance swirl into the air like smoke, thin out, and then disappear.  
"Because it isn't water." The Doctor replied.  
"Oh, that is so cool." She said looking at the now empty glass. "H-How...?"  
The Doctor took out a pair of black-ish glasses and put them on. "The water's molecular structure is actually closer to steam, but with a much lover boiling temperature. The anomaly in the gravity means that it's kept compressed, squeezed down into grooves and cracks. Well, and that." The Doctor added and pointed to the sea. "It's actually more of a valley than an ocean." "Oh..." Sara said and looked at the Doctor with a little smile "That's... actually quite fascinating, but what I meant was: how did you know?"  
The Doctor looked confused. "I didn't." He said indifferent. "I saw it when I bent down and my coat touched the water. Or, well, the steam..." Sara grinned and returned her gaze to the sand in front of her. Her new footprint were still there, clear as ever, but they were now the only prints she could see. The Doctor scratched his neck and looked around. Suddenly his eyes opened wide as if he just realised something that could change the world. He turned his head towards the sea of steam, then where the prints had been, and then looked at Sara. Then he suddenly ran to the T.A.R.D.I.S.. Sara watched him run and got up herself, running after him.  
"What is it, Doctor?" she asked when she reached the T.A.R.D.I.S.-doors. The Doctor was franticly running around the central control column, pressing buttons. Every time he moved, he would pull a screen with him that he would look at.  
"Ah!" He exclaimed loudly. Then he froze. "But that means..." He said, as his eyes widened in horror. The Doctor suddenly ran towards the stairs to the lower level. Sara moved a little further into the T.A.R.D.I.S., somehow feeling safer inside. She didn't like the look she had seen on the Doctor's face before he had disappeared down the stairs. She drew her wand, holding it firmly in her hand as she looked outside, where everything seemed all too quiet now. Suddenly the Doctor came running back up, holding a broom in his hand.  
"The sand, Sara!" The Doctor yelled. She looked towards the open door. She didn't think she had dragged that much sand with her; it almost reached all the way to the central column. The Doctor looked Sara in the eyes. "It isn't sand! It's alive!"  
"A-alive?" she asked with a mixed tone of amazement and worry. She looked down to the floor. She was standing in some right now. She bit her lower lip and stepped to side off of the sand. The Doctor started to frantically sweep the sand out of the T.A.R.D.I.S.. When he was finished, he slammed the door shut and leaned against it.  
"We need to get the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the air!" He said and ran to the controls. "Sara, listen to me. I need you to run down the stairs, down the hallway there-" he said, and pointed," past the two doors on the left, then take a right, and then into the room with all the coats, you can't miss it, and get me the brown leather looking box under the table!" "Down stairs, hallway, two doors, then right." She mumbled quickly to herself before running down the stairs and into a hallway that seemed almost a mile long. As she passed the first door on her left hand the T.A.R.D.I.S. starting to rumble, knocking her off balance, though she quickly regained it and found her way to the coat-room. She looked around it, her eyes caught a long bright multicoloured jacket, then a very, very long scarf, but no brown box. She decided to move some coats around and finally found it. She grabbed the box and ran back to the Doctor.  
"Here!" She said, slightly out of breath, as she handed it to him.  
"Ah." He said with a cheeky smile. He put the box on one of the seats behind him. "Aaand there!" He said, as he pulled a lever. The T.A.R.D.I.S. stabilized as the Doctor threw himself on the seat next to the box. He leaned back and sighed with relief. Sara looked at him. "So... wh-what just happened? And what's in the box?" The Doctor looked at her, then at the box, then back at her.  
"When I realized that the water was steam and that the footprints disappeared, it was all kinda' obvious, really. The red steam isn't water. It's blood. The little silver fish? They're nothing but skeletal remains, coated in the iron from the blood, being carried by the steam. The sand mites are carnivores. The entire place isn't deserted, it's devoured. There's a good chance that at least one of those moons weren't always a moon... They are like a swarm. They get carried on the wind from place to place, but this planet trapped them, with its funky gravity and all... Oh, I figured that part out too." He said, and pointed to a screen over the controls. Sara went a bit closer to him, to get a better look at the screen. It showed an oval planet, sort of glowing on one side with two moons around. It must be where they had just been.  
"It's sort of looks like a giant pill." She said with a little smile. Being in danger hadn't shook her as much as she might have thought it would. She then looked at the leather box the Doctor had made her get.  
"So... the box?" she asked again, curious as to why he had made her get it at such a time. "Oh, that?" The Doctor said. "Well... When we were leaving... Hogwarts-" he had to overcome himself to say the name, "the T.A.R.D.I.S. couldn't function properly with you near, so I figured it might help with you a bit, well, further from the controls..."  
He opened the box, took out a magnifying glass and held it to his eye. "Oh, would you look at that?" He said with enthusiasm. Sara smiled nervously and looked into the Doctor's enlarged eye through the glass. She sighed at him. "Why did you ask me to bring the box, if you didn't need it? I would have been perfectly content with not bringing it back. I mean... if you needed me out of the room, you could have just said so... or mentioned the very pink and, well, all sorts of coloured jacket you have." She said in an amused tone. The Doctor looked slightly embarrassed. "That was a, um... A phase..." He said and scratched his neck. Sara giggled, then yawned, suddenly realising how tired she was. "It's pretty." She assured him.  
"Doctor... It's been very exciting, it really has... but when we met it was already kind of late. Maybe I should get back and... get some sleep." She said, sad that it was already over. There was still so many things she hadn't seen.  
"Yeah, you could do that," the Doctor said with a hint of adventure in his eye, "or I could give you a tour of the halls in the T.A.R.D.I.S.?"  
Sara yawned while trying to smile at him. She was pretty sure she didn't succeed in her smile and even if she did, she had already covered her mouth with her hand.  
"I'm sure we can even find a room for you to sleep in. I might even have some less... Some clothes in your size." She nodded at him with a very bright smile. This meant she could stay. She could see more wonderful things like the death-pill-planet, then she frowned at him.  
"Hey! My clothes are just fi- that would be great... Maybe we could find the room first and then you could show me the rest of the tour tomorrow?"


	5. Music: part one

"It's weird though..." Sara started.  
They'd been walking around the TARDIS for little while. The Doctor had showed her around.  
"Yeah?" The Doctor asked. People always had a hard time with the TARDIS being bigger on the inside.  
"Well, I've been thinking... I've always followed the rules, stayed out of trouble, you know? Never really been much for strangers... and then I meet you and I just go with you... On your ship. I mean... I don't even know you. You could be a very dangerous man, for all I know, but I didn't even think twice about taking off with you." The Doctor looked at Sara. "Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts, I guess." He answered.  
"Do you always pick up strangers to come see the universe with you?" She asked blankly. The Doctor paused.  
"Well... It happens, I guess..." He answered with a thoughtful expression.  
Sara smiled at him. "Thanks for bringing me." she said, looking around the TARDIS. "It's much bigger than I had expected." She admitted. The Doctor tried not to smile, when she said the last part. "Well, Sara, thanks for coming along." "Anytime." She answered sweetly.  
They walked around a little while longer, then they turned a corner.  
"And, here we are." The Doctor said, holding out his hand towards the main control room. "That was the highlight-tour, but I figure with a whole universe to go see, why bother with a few hundred extra rooms?" He ran up the stars and looked at the control screen. Sara smirked at him.  
"So... where are we going?" she said with delight.  
"We have already seen the stars, and I've been working on redirecting the TARDIS energy almost directly through the main console, eliminating about 96% of all outside interference, meaning, that we should be able to go where ever we want now." He said with a look of delight. "Dinosaurs, was it?" He added, winking at Sara. She grinned widely.  
"Can we really?" She asked, joining the Doctor's side. The Doctor started working the controls, again pressing buttons and flipping switches, running franticly around the console. "Anywhere, any_when_!" He yelled as he passed Sara. "You better hold on to something!" He added, as he picked up a hammer and started hitting the controls. The TARDIS started to shake.  
"We've entered the time stream! Allons-y!" He added happily. Sara grabbed onto the nearest railing. "Should I leave or something?" She asked with a grin as she was pushed against the railing by the TARDIS.  
The shaking started fading. Then it was completely still. The Doctor looked at Sara.  
"Why would you do that?" He asked confused. "Like I just explained," he said, Grabbed his long, brown jacket from a pillar and started walking towards the door, "I've redirected the energy through the main console, so your physical interference should be reduced to, oh, 7% tops." He opened the door, still looking at Sara. " Trust me, I've got everything under," he turned his head and looked outside, "con... trol... Oh..." He said, as his smile faded.  
"I see." Sara said and joined him at his side. "Doctor... where are we?"  
The Doctor stepped outside so Sara could see. There were no dinosaurs. A road leading down the hill they were on, yes. Houses scattered at both sides of the road, too. Even a town further down the road. But no dinosaurs.  
"Hm." The Doctor said.  
"Doctor?" Sara asked, her voice was curious. She had followed him outside, her blond hair blowing in the wind. "Hm? Oh, right, yes. Well, it's earth, far as I can tell... Around twelve hundred," the Doctor stuck his index finger in his mouth, then in the air, "and eighty. Give or take a few years..." Sara giggled "Can you really tell that from the wind, or are you just showing of?" She looked at him with a sweet and excited smile. At least she didn't seem disappointed about the lack dinosaurs.  
The Doctor looked at Sara. "C'mon, we better go investigate." He said and started walking towards the town. Sara skipped along behind him.  
"They had witch-hunts back... now." She said rather cheerfully. The Doctor looked at Sara, but didn't say anything.

After they had walked for a while, They passed a cart being pulled by a horse. A large man with a bushy moustache was driving it. It had started getting dark, so the Doctor waved at the man and said: "Good evening."  
The man replied with a laugh. "The evening is better than good, my good sir, it's great!" He laughed loudly as the cart passed them.  
"Oh," the Doctor said, "looks like we're in Germany.""Germany?" Sara asked confused. "Yup." The Doctor replied. "And judging by his accent, I'd say somewhere near the river Weser. " "He sounded British to me..." Sara mumbled loud enough for the Doctor to hear. "Oh, that!" The Doctor exclaimed. "The TARDIS does that. It uses a telepathic field to translate all known languages for the passengers. Neat, eh?" The Doctor asked. "Hah! That is fantastic! So you're not really speaking English either?" Sara asked.  
"Sometimes, I am." He answered. "And Spanish and French." He added with a little smile. "Now, what do you say we go find out what makes this particular evening so great?" He continued, and grabbed Sara's hand. She held his hand as well and nodded cheerfully. "I say that sounds like a great idea!" she replied.  
As they neared the centre of the town they started hearing music and laughter.  
"Sounds like a great day, indeed." The Doctor said cheerfully. Sara nodded and started running, pulling the Doctor towards the music.  
The large town square was crowded. There were people playing music, and most of the other people were dancing arm in arm. The sun was almost down, and large torches was placed around lighting up the square in a warm and comfy light.  
"Oh, look: It's a party!" Sara exclaimed happily. A woman nearby heard, and came over.  
"Hello strangers, and welcome!" She gleefully said, slightly louder than necessary.  
The Doctor glanced at the large mug of ale in her hand, about half empty. "Thank you!" He said with a smile. "So, um, I see you're celebrating... A... Local... Holliday...?" The Doctor dragged the words out, trying to get the lady to fill the gaps with a proper explanation, but she just stood there and smiled, swaying gently as the Doctor spoke.  
"No, no!" She said laughing. "This is a special occasion! The town has been freed from our biggest trouble in -hic- 'ears!" She told happily.  
"What kind of trouble, ma'am?" Sara asked politely. "The little pests, of course!" The woman replied, spreading her arms out. "Do you see any? No! They are all... -hic- Gone!" The Doctor's expression suddenly got serious.  
"Wait a minute," he said to himself, then turned to the lady, "What town is this?"  
She gave him a pat on his cheek, a little harder than he would have liked, and said:  
"Oh, you silly man!" Then, she zigzagged a few steps back and grabbed a dancing man's arm, and suddenly she was swept away, lost among the dancing people.  
The Doctor ran up to a couple, standing a little farther from the commotion.  
"Excuse me, pardon me, hello!" The Doctor frantically said to them. They looked startled, but at least they looked to be a little more clear in their heads.  
"Good evening stranger." The man said in a welcoming tone, but as he said it, he put his arm around the woman in a slightly protective manner.  
"Right, yes, good evening. Say, my, um, friend and I are travellers of the open road, and we just happened to pass through your lovely town," he said, rather fast, "maybe you could be so kind as to tell us the name of this beautiful place?"  
The Woman smiled when she noticed Sara coming to the Doctors side. The man relaxed his grip on the woman, as she said:  
"Welcome, both of you. Travellers are always welcome here, in Hameln." The Doctor's eyes widened. He looked at Sara. "Do you know what this means!?" He said, as he grabbed her shoulders. "S-should I?" She asked with a strange expression.  
The Doctor turned back to the slightly confused couple. "I hear this party is to celebrate the disappearance of a, um, pest problem?" He asked them. "Yes," the woman answered, "all the rats are gone!" The Doctor grabbed his head with both hands. "The rats!" He manically said, almost shouting. He regained his composure and asked:  
"So, how, er, exactly did you all of a sudden get rid of... You know what, never mind! What about all the-" The Doctor was suddenly interrupted by a woman screaming. He hadn't noticed that the music had stopped as he had talked.  
"Children! The children! They are _gone_!" The woman screamed. The Doctor had turned towards the screaming woman, and was now turning towards the couple, but they were already gone.  
Everyone was starting to panic, running around confused and frightened, trying to get home to see if their worst nightmare had come true. The Doctor grabbed Sara's arm. "Let's go!" He yelled over the sound of the panicking people. She went with him.  
"Doctor..." She started, her words almost covered by the sound of panicked people. "... The Rat-Man?" She finished. "The Pied Piper." The Doctor corrected her, as they made their way through smaller and less crowded streets.  
"Yeah, but... that's a story." she said to him. "That's not the first time I've heard that." The Doctor said to himself. "Lots of myths have grounds in real stories." He explained.  
"The story about a Piper coming to Hamelin to help the town with their rat problem in exchange for payment, could very well be true. There goes the theory about the rats being a metaphor for the plague..." The Doctor said the last part thoughtfully. "Now the townspeople have refused mister rat-catcher his pay, so..."He said, and added grimly:  
"No children."  
"that's horrible..." Sara said. "We have to find them, Doctor." She looked at him, almost like a dog would look when it tried to convince it's owner to give it some food. The Doctor's face lit up. "Yes, Sara. And we will!" He looked around. "The story says that he stole 130 kids. Where do you take that many kids, without being noticed? And how!?" The Doctor growled frustrated.  
"In the story he plays the flute and lures the children away with it... Maybe he really does have some sort of magic flute?" Sara suggested. The Doctor sighed, a little more frustrated.  
"Sara, there is no such thing as...! waitaminute... Yes! That's it! If he does use some sort of hypnotic sound waves," the Doctor said, as he franticly pulled his sonic screwdriver out from his inner pocket, "I may be able to track it! Or, at the very least, pick up some residual energy from whatever _technological _device he uses!"  
He held his sonic in straight arm, right in his line of sight. It lit up and buzzed. "Aaargh! It isn't enough...!" He Screamed. He pointed the sonic upwards and extended it, running around, pointing it in all directions.  
"If I'd been a little younger... maybe I could have heard it as well. I mean... where does his child/adult line go?" Sara said thoughtfully, her eyes on the sonic. The sonic stopped. The Doctor looked at Sara.  
"That's it!" He said and ran back to her. "What defines people as children? Not age! No, time! People didn't live for more than 40 years in the eleventh century, but you! You would still be a child in the thirty-first!" He said loudly, pointing at Sara. Then he grabbed her and ran towards the TARDIS.  
"Doctor!" she called from behind him. "I don't... understand!" She said between breaths as they ran.  
"If I can boost the signal through the TARDIS, I might be able to get it strong enough for you to hear!" He said, as they reached the TARDIS.  
The Doctor pushed the doors open, threw his jacket over the first pillar to the right, and started the scan. "Hah!" He yelled. "I've found the signal!" His face turned darker. "But I can't pinpoint it! I'm trying to amp it up a pit!" He said to Sara who were at his side.  
"I don't hear anything..." She said after having listened intensely for a while.  
The Doctor straightened up and sighed. Then he slammed both hands into the controls. He turned around and let his hand glide over his face.  
"I can't... I can't find it. The signal is too weak. Sara, I'm sorry. I'm so..." The Doctor looked up. "Sara?" She was gone. The Doctor looked around.  
"What?" He said out loud.


	6. Music: part two

"Sara?" She was gone. The Doctor looked around. "What?" He said out loud.  
He ran to the door and looked outside. Sara was a few feet away from the TARDIS, walking resolutely. The Doctor ran up to her.  
"Sara?" He asked softly, as he reached her side. Sara didn't respond, she just had a distant look on her face. The Doctor looked worried at her, as he followed her for a while.  
Suddenly Sara stopped in her tracks. She blinked a few times, then looked at the Doctor with a smile.  
"Doctor." She almost whispered, then looked around. "I heard the... flute-thing." she said. "Yeah?" The Doctor replied with a low, pandering voice. "Are you okay?" He added. She blinked a couple of times more and nodded "Yes.. y-yeah, I'm fine."  
She pointed towards some hills in the horizon. "I was going there... I think." She said.  
The Doctor beat his knuckles against his forehead. "Think!" He said frustrated. "Ah! A version of the story says that the Piper took the kids to a magical land over a hill and... Never mind." He quickly added. "Let's go!" He said and started running.  
When he reached the top of the nearest hill, he stopped. Sara almost bumped into him but swung around instead. When she had regained her balance she looked out over the hill. "Which one?" Sara asked.  
They both looked out over a large plane of hills.  
"No, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor said loudly. He then pulled out his sonic again and started scanning.  
"Yes!" He said, as he pointed it towards Sara. "Although you can't hear it any more, an echo of the link is still there! I can track it!" He pointed the sonic towards a hill. The sonic gave off a low beeping, as he slowly moved it across the hills, the beeping rose.  
"Yes! Got it!" He suddenly said triumphantly, pointing the sonic towards a large hill. He retracted the sonic and shoved it pack into his pocket. He looked at Sara. "Let's go save some children!" He said with a laugh. Sara grinned at him "Lead the way!" She said with a bow.  
When they reached the hill they both heard music. It only marginally sounded like a flute. There was something strange, almost other worldly about it.  
They followed the music to the other side of the hill, where they found a huge entrance. It looked a bit like a mineshaft.  
The Doctor did a quick scan of the entrance. "This isn't man-made..." He said. "There's traces of- Sara!" He said, interrupting himself.  
Sara, who had been walking a few steps in front of him, stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the Doctor.  
"Sorry, Doctor..." She had already half turned away again "It's just..." She started walking again, a little slower that before, though.  
The Doctor ran up to her and pointed his screwdriver at her face, he looked at it, extended it and held it towards her temple. Sara flinched a little.  
"I have isolated the signal and reversed the polarity. You should be somewhat immune, unless the signal is drastically changed." He said with a quick smile. He then flipped his screwdriver in the air, caught it and placed it back in his pocket.  
"Now, let's go see the Pied fella'." The Doctor said and gave Sara a quick glance to check that she was really okay. She had a strange look on her face and was holding hand to her temples.  
"let's go." she repeated in a low voice.  
They walked through a long corridor for a while, only dimly lit by a few torches. The Doctor noticed that the corridor was much too long to physically fit the hill they had entered, but he didn't say anything. Finally they reached a large room, almost just a cave.  
There was a large bonfire in the middle, and all around it sat the missing children.  
The Doctor and Sara hid behind a large rock next to the entrance. To the left of them, by the bonfire, sat a man crouched down and playing an almost two foot long flute. He was completely obscured by a green cloak with a large hood, that covered his face.  
"Doctor..." Sara whispered weakly "Mind if I.. eh... t-turn it off?" She asked, looking at the hooded-figure. The Doctor looked very focused at the man with the flute, he almost didn't here what she said.  
"Sure." He answered, absent-mindedly.  
Sara drew her wand from her long boot and pointed it discretely at the giant flute. The Doctor quickly turned his head towards her. "Wait, what!?"  
"_Silencio._" She whispered. Seconds later the strange music stopped playing and Sara breathed a sigh of relief as her expression softened. She returned her wand to her boot.  
The Doctor looked annoyed and slightly impressed, but before he could say anything, the music started up again. Slowly, like an old record being played too slowly and shaky. The Piper turned towards them still obscured by the green cloak.  
"_Vissssitorsss_... _Come down..._" He said with a raspy voice. The music still played on as he spoke.  
The Doctor stood up. "Yes, hello!" He said in a positive tone. He signalled Sara to stay down with his hand. She did as he instructed. She even tucked herself a little further down almost holding her breath. The Doctor started to walk down towards the fire. "I was just out for a stroll, and I-" He was cut off by the Piper. "_Both of you..."_ He said with a wide smile barely visible under the hood. The music still didn't stop.  
Sara bit her lower lip, then took a deep breath before standing up with a forced smile. She waved at the Piper.  
"So," the Doctor asked, "are all these your children?"  
The Piper tilted his head. "_Don't play dumb with meee..._" He said and removed a hand from the long flute. He pointed a finger at the Doctor as he spoke, it was almost twice the length of a normal finger, but slightly thinner. All of his fingers were like that.  
"Sorry." Said the Doctor in a serious tone. "I'm the Doctor. And you are?" He asked at the piper.  
"_My naaame,_" the Piper said, as he stood up, "_Isss Rattenfänger._" The Doctor looked at the Piper who towered over the Doctor. He reached up and removed his green cloak. He was tall and thin, his arms and legs longer, but thinner than a normal human. He was dressed in red, tight clothing that was dirty and with holes. He held his long flute in one hand against his throat, where a second, smaller mouth was playing it. His other mouth was bigger, thin and full of sharp teeth. His eyes were slightly yellow.  
Sara swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the Piper.  
The Doctor gestured at Sara. "Stay behind me." He said to her.  
"_Why have you cooome...?_" The Piper asked, edging around the fire, towards the Doctor and Sara.  
The Doctor gave Sara a light push, making sure they had most of the bonfire between them and the Piper.  
"You stole all the kids from the town, Ratty. Can I call you Ratty?" The Doctor asked. "Don't call him Ratty..." Sara whispered.  
The Piper growled and took a big step towards them. "Okay, okay!" The Doctor said, shuffling back, almost falling, as he tried to keep the distance big enough.  
"How about Piper?"  
The Piper stopped moving and tilted his head again. "_Piiipeeer...?_" He asked interested. "Yeah," the Doctor replied, "the Pied...Piper... You know?" He asked, then added to himself: "Of course you don't, the name was made up years after this happened..."  
The Piper smiled. "_Yeeessss. The Pied Piiipeeer... I liiike it... Doctor..._" Sara nodded behind the Doctor.  
"Listen, Piper. We are not here to hurt you, we just need to make sure the kids are safe." The Doctor said in a serious tone.  
"_Hurt meee...? Are you threateniiing meee...?_" The Piper asked with a slight smile, his lover mouth still playing. "Threatening? No. I am giving you a chance, Piper. _One_ chance."  
The Piper had a look of almost respect towards the Doctor. "_I neeed the kidsss..._"  
The Doctor glanced at Sara who looked slightly off. She wasn't looking at the Piper any more, she was looking at the children. They were all just standing there looking at the fire with dead eyes.  
"Need them?" The Doctor asked. "What for?" The Piper smiled. "_I neeed theeem..._" He answered. The Doctor frowned.  
"I can't let you take the kids." The Doctor sternly said. "_Taaake them? But, Doctooor... I already have theeem..._" The Piper answered indifferently.  
The Doctor was getting angry. "What do you mean you need them!?"  
The Piper pointed to the fire. "_I need eneeergy..._" He said. The Doctor looked at the fire. Inside the fire was a slight blue swirl. The Doctor looked back at the Piper with disbelief. "But that's...!" He said angrily. "What is it?" Sara asked, still looking at the children.  
"The fire. It, it isn't a fire. It's the beginning of a wormhole, a whole in space! A way to travel from one place to another instantly. But it is unstable. It requires large amounts of energy, more than can be found on Earth, even in your time. The whole thing was made illegal even before it was more than a mere concept, an idea! The High Council of Gallifrey made sure it..." He stopped, overcome by emotions, but not letting it show.  
"How did you get it to work?" The Doctor asked, looking the Piper straight in the eyes with a cold gaze. The Piper had slowly moved closer. He now stood almost right in front of the doctor, looking down on him. The Doctor didn't move. The Piper crouched down so he was almost eye to eye with the Doctor.  
"_The children are the fueeel._" the Piper replied. "You are not using those children as fuel!" The Doctor angrily shouted, pointing at the nearest kids.  
"Why?!" Sara asked rather loudly, almost shouting. She was looking straight at the Piper now. "It... Because it's wrong, Sara." The Doctor said, shocked that she would even ask.  
"No," she said, now looking at the Doctor "Why _children_? What makes them such good fuel?"  
They both turned to the Piper. "_They are... Valuable..._" He answered. "Valuable?" The Doctor repeated. "_Emotional... Value..._" "Oh... Oh!" The Doctor said, suddenly understanding.  
"You are powering your wormhole with... Emotions? The love parents feel towards their children is one of the strongest feelings there is. You are siphoning the feelings placed in the children to your wormhole!" The Doctor explained, clearly shaken by the revelation.  
"_It isn't... leeethal..._" The Piper commented. "Oh, well that makes it okay." Sara mumbled sarcastically to herself.  
"Not lethal!?" The Doctor screamed angrily. "There's less than a 150 children here! It would take over a week to open a stable wormhole!"  
The Piper shrugged. "_The processs... Isn't... Leeethal..._" He repeated. "They'll starve!" The Doctor screamed as he pointed at the children. "You can't...!" Sara said horrified, then added "... There must be something else you can use?"  
The Piper looked at Sara. "_Only Feelingsss..._" He said.  
"That's it!" The Doctor yelled. "People doesn't just have feelings for their kids! They feel for lots of things. Sure, there is no other feeling stronger, but then we'll just need more!" The Doctor explained. He then turned to Sara. "The story! The Pied Piper removes all the rats, then he steals the children. In some versions of the story they are returned. Why?" Sara looked to be thinking for a shot while.  
"Because the town pays him!" She exclaimed, almost tripping over the words in her eager to answer. "Exactly!" The Doctor responded with a smile. "If there's one thing people appreciate, it's money. With or without children, everyone wants money. Or, even better, gold! Gold is old. Gold has had emotions poured into it for generations!" The Doctor explained enthusiastically. "All you need to do," he continued to the Piper, "is go to the town, and tell them that you have the children, and that you want gold to give them back!"  
The Piper looked intrigued for a second, then shook his head. "_I caaan't... __I mussst stay... and plaaay..._"  
The Doctor turned to the children. "If you go, they can't hear the music. They will panic... And you," he said and turned to the Piper, "have to start over."  
"I could go..." Sara said to the Doctor. "No," the Doctor said with a melancholic sigh, "You aren't tall enough. And the Pied Piper in the story is," the Doctor's eyes grew wider, as he realised, "a man!"  
He ran around the Piper and picked up his green cloak, lying on the ground, and swung it over his shoulders. He then turned to Sara.  
"What do you think? Will it work?" She smiled brightly at him "Pull the hood over your face." she said in a slightly playful tone.  
The Doctor smiled and pulled the hood up. The cloak was much too big. "I can't see anything." The Doctor mumbled. He pulled the hood down a bit, then ran for the entrance.  
"Are you coming?" He shouted back at Sara. She smiled and took a few steps towards him, then stopped, looked back at the children and then at the Doctor.  
"Will the children be safe?" She asked in a worried tone. The Doctor looked straight at the Piper with a stern face. "Yes. The children will be safe."  
The Piper smiled. "_Hurry... Doooctooor..._" He hauntingly replied.  
They could hear the strange music playing, lower and lower, as they ran out of the cave.


	7. Music: part three

Sara was almost out of breath when they reached the town.  
It felt like they had been running forever. They stopped and looked at each other at the edge of the town.  
"I won't be far behind you." Sara said ducking behind a building, keeping an eye on the Doctor, who entered the town.  
The Doctor walked confidently to the centre of the town where he climbed onto a table, that had been left behind during the festivities. He looked around. There weren't any people to be seen.  
"Hm..." He said, and scratched his neck.  
Sara, who had followed along the wall, noticed the lack of people. She drew her wand and pointing it at the sky, wanting to shoot little red lights from it. _This ought to get their attention_, she thought, then lowered her wand again. What was that spell called again? She couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember?! It was such a simple spell... She had to think of a plan B.  
She looked around the town-centre for something she could use to lure out the townsfolk. A horse, no. A well... no. A gas lamp, n-yes. She pointed her wand at it.  
_"Reducto_."  
The lamp blew up with a loud _bang_.  
After a little while, people started gathering in the town square to see what had caused the loud noise in the otherwise very quiet town. The Doctor, who had almost fallen off the table because of the bang, looked around.  
"Everyone!" He shouted, but people were mumbling too loud, still panicking. "Please, listen!" He tried again, but no one noticed.  
_This would have been so much easier if we had a microphone_, Sara thought to herself, then got an idea. She could magically enhance the Doctor's voice with a spell! She made sure no-one was watching before pointing her wand at the Doctor, who was still trying to get everyone's attention.  
"Forgive me, Doctor. _Sonorus_!" She whispered.  
"LISTEN!" The Doctor's voice boomed across the entire town. Everyone stopped and looked at him. The Doctor looked very surprised. "UM...!" He said. The people closest to him covered their ears.  
"_Quietus._" Sara whispered out of sight, returning the Doctor's voice to normal. She didn't want people to be too scared of him, she just wanted them to listen. The Doctor cleared his throat, realizing that his voice was back to normal.  
"That's better." He whispered to himself. "So, Everyone!" He yelled. "I can help you get your children back, but you have to listen!"  
Everyone looked at the cloaked Doctor. "I'm going to need as much gold as you've got!" He explained.  
The people started stirring, then suddenly, a man yelled out:  
"He has our children!"  
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "It's never that easy..." He said to himself. "Your children are safe, but the only way you can get them back, is if you give up your gold!"  
"Don't listen to him!" A man yelled. "You won't get our gold!" another man cried out.  
"No, listen!" the Doctor tried.  
"If he won't tell us where our children are, we will make him!" a woman screamed. "It's just one man!" A man said loudly. "We can take him!" Someone chimed in. "get him!"  
The Doctor Started to look nervous. He started backing up, but there wasn't much table to move back on. Sara bit her lip. This was not good. Not good! What should she do? She needed something that would convince the crowd that they shouldn't mess with him. She wasn't sure the enhanced voice would be enough this time. She once again pointed her wand towards the Doctor, still unsure what to do. This wasn't like school where you could just try and try again. Oh, what to do?!  
"Uhm... Uhm... _Wingardium Leviosa_!" She said in an almost panicked voice.  
The Doctor was lifted a few feet off the ground. The crowd gasped and moved a few steps away from the flying man. The Doctor didn't understand what was going on. He looked at Sara, and saw her pointing her wand at him. Sara couldn't hear him over the worried crowd, but she was pretty she read his lips, saying "_what!?_" She mouthed back "Sorry!" before making him hover closer to the now completely silent crowd.  
"Now, everyone! Gather your gold!" The Doctor ordered in an intimidating tone. The Townspeople started running panicked amongst each other, trying to get to their gold.  
The Doctor then turned to Sara. "And you! Get me down, now!"  
Sara obliged with a apoplectic smile. She tucked her wand back into her boot, hopping the Doctor wasn't too angry with her. She was just trying to help, surely he would understand.  
He looked pretty angry as he walked over to her. "Well," he said to her, after a while, "that worked." He didn't seem to want to acknowledge what had just happened. Sara nodded "Y-yes... I'm sorry." She said with a low voice. "I should have asked, I know. but there wasn't time and..." she trailed off, not sure what to say to make it right.  
The Doctor looked her in the eyes, his face relaxing a bit. "Hey. You did okay."  
Sara gave him a slight smile. It's felt good to hear. The Doctor held out his arms and gave Sara a comforting hug. She rested her head against his chest and exhaled, not realising before she stopped, that she had been shaking. She could hear is heartbeat through his suit. It sounded like it was beating almost twice as fast as it should, but the Doctor didn't seem to be afraid. Or, at least he wasn't showing it.  
The Doctor stood in the large cloak with his arms around Sara for a while, until she had calmed down.  
After a minute or two a man came back to the town square with a cart, in it was a little bag of gold.  
Sara hid herself behind a barrel as soon as she saw the man.  
He drove the cart to the middle of the square, then he walked over to the Doctor.  
"I am sorry, it is all I have!" He said with a trembling voice. "Let's hope it is enough." The Doctor answered.  
The man looked fearful at the Doctor. "You come here and steal our children! Why?! Who are you?!"  
The Doctor tugged at the hood, trying to hide his face in shame. "I'm the Doc... I am the Piper." He corrected himself. The man hurried away.  
The Doctor turned his back to Sara and walked to the nearest table. Sara walked over next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  
Suddenly he punched the table with both hands.  
"Are you okay?" She asked, even though she already knew he wasn't.  
The Doctor looked at her. "I wanted to tell that man that everything was going to be all right. Comfort him, just give him some kind of hope! But I couldn't. The townspeople needs to be afraid, need to fear the Piper. Otherwise, the children will suffer!"  
Sara gave him a sad smile and took the Doctor's hand. She understood completely, she had heard the hurt in the man's voice as well.  
"Don't worry, Doctor. The children will be returned safe and sound, because of you... That man will soon hold his child in his arms again." She finally said in soft voice. The Doctor gave Sara a sad smile, but didn't say anything.  
People started coming back to the square, some with bags of gold, some with just a handful. They all placed the gold in the cart. It filled up and less and less people came.  
"That should be enough." The Doctor said to Sara. She nodded and they started pulling the cart together in silence.  
Sara understood why the Doctor wasn't in a chatty mood, neither would she be if she had been in his place... still. They walked without saying anything, until they were well outside the town.  
"Doctor?" Sara finally asked breaking the silence. The Doctor was looking back at the town. He could see a few people peeking from behind buildings and out of windows and doors, looking anxiously after them, as the Doctor and Sara disappeared with their gold, and maybe also their last hope.  
"Yes?" The Doctor said, a little more stern that he wanted to. Sara looked at the Doctor and hesitated before asking.  
"W-well... I was just wondering..." She started. "I'm sorry." The Doctor sighed. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that. Go on." He added. "... Back at the T.A.R.D.I.S.. I heard the song and I was... hypnotized or something right? But it stopped, remember? Why was that?" As she spoke her voice changed from a nervous mutter to a delightful curiosity.  
The Doctor gave Sara a small smile. "The hypnotic signal embedded in the music, was amplified by the T.A.R.D.I.S.. When you walked too far away from it, the effect of the signal faded." He explained.  
"Ah! That makes sense." she said with a small smile. She looked at the Doctor. She wanted so much to make him smile, to make him feel better.  
"We _will_ help those people." She said firmly.  
"Sara," the Doctor said, looking at her, "I'm not sure it's enough."  
Sara didn't say anything, she just sort of looked into the Doctor's eyes.  
"The gold." The Doctor continued. "It might not be enough emotional energy to power the wormhole."  
"We'll think of something..." She said seriously, then added in a lighter tone:  
"You seem pretty bright and I know for sure, that I'm just brilliant." The Doctor couldn't hide a smile. "You're right, Sara." He said in a lighter tone. Then he smiled a warm and big smile, and added:  
"Brilliant."  
After the mood had been lifted it didn't seem to take long before they made it back to the cave in the hills.  
The children were still standing around the fire, listening to the Piper's music.  
"Piper!" The Doctor yelled. The Piper looked at the entrance, then at the cart full of gold. He smiled.  
"_Goood..._" He said and nodded. The Doctor removed the cloak and turned to Sara. "Help me place the gold around the fire!" He said, and grabbed as much gold as he could. Then he ran between the children, scattering the gold on the floor.  
Sara grabbed handful after handful of gold and placed it around the fire. They both ran from the cart to the fire, until there was no gold left.  
As they had scattered the gold, the fire had changed from a warm red, to a cold blue. The blue swirl inside the fire had grown darker and bigger, and now looked more like a hole inside the fire. It had also started making a strange, windy noise, that grew louder.  
The Piper had also turned up the volume of his strange flute.  
"It's working!" The Doctor yelled to Sara, who smiled brightly at him and gave him the thumps up.  
The Doctor's smile started to fade. "It's not enough!" He yelled frustrated. He looked around at the children, then at Sara. Suddenly he stopped. "The signal! That's it!" He yelled with a frantic expression.  
"Wait here, Sara! I have an idea!" He continued, and ran towards the entrance.  
And so Sara was left in the cave and the Doctor was off. She stood there for a while looking at the entrance to the cave.  
"He'll be back." she said slightly worried that she would be left here. She felt the Piper's eyes on her neck, growing more and more uncomfortable under his stare, so she decided to strike up a conversation.  
"So..." she said and turned around to face the Piper. "Where are all the rats?" she asked looking around. It couldn't be just a coincidence that they had disappeared now.  
The Piper walked closer to Sara, His lower mouth still playing the long flute. "_It would take a week... To open the portal..._" The Piper said. "_The children would staaaarve...I Would nooot..._" He continued, licking his lips with a long, thin tongue.  
"Oh... Oh." Sara said and shuttered. Then her eyes shot to the Piper's eyes. "Wait. You _knew_ it would take too long and the children wouldn't survive!" she exclaimed as she realised.  
"_I sssaid that the processs would not kill them..._" The Piper responded. "_I did not asssk to be heeere... All I waaant... Isss to go hooome..._"  
Sara could sort of relate to that. She still couldn't accept using children, but she understood that the Piper was really not intentionally a bad guy.  
"H-how did you get here in the first place?"  
The Piper moved closer, but not in a threatening way. He seemed curious as to why she suddenly cared. "I _wasss ripped from my hooome..._" He explained. "_Ripped through tiiime... and space..._" she swallowed. "Oh... I-I'm sorry." He was just an innocent bystander, ripped from his home.  
Suddenly Sara heard a whooshing sound as wind started blowing. She turned around and saw the T.A.R.D.I.S., almost transparent at first, but becoming more and more solid.  
The Piper almost looked frightened when he heard the sound. Sara laid a reassuring hand him. The T.A.R.I.D.S. door opened and the Doctor stepped out.  
"Let's boost that signal!" He yelled to Sara, who ran to him. They ran to the controls.  
"I'm isolating the frequency of the Pipers flute, and doubling," the Doctor ran to the other side of the controls and pulled a large handle,"Ah! Tripling the signal! I am also trying to speed up the wormhole! The faster it opens, the faster the children can go home!"  
Sara grinned largely. Happiness filled her. The children would be unharmed and reunited with their parents and the Piper would return to his home. Nothing could really compare with travelling with the Doctor. Suddenly she heard a large boom. The Doctor smiled at her and grabbed her hand. They both ran outside and saw a large black hole where the fire had been.  
The hole had a dark blue circle around it, that gradually became lighter. Sara could feel the pull of the hole. Sand and lighter pieces of the gold was starting to get sucked into it.  
The Doctor turned to the Piper. "The hole is unstable! I'm keeping it open as long as I can, but you need to go now!" He yelled.  
The Piper straightened to his full height, almost twice as tall as the Doctor, and sped towards the wormhole. On the way he picked up his green cloak and swung it over his shoulders. He stopped in front of the hole and gave the Doctor and Sara an approving nod. The Doctor smiled, but before he could say anything, one of the kids nearest to the wormhole started getting pulled in.  
"NO!" The Doctor Yelled in horror.  
Just before the little boy disappeared, the Piper, bending almost impossibly backwards, caught the child's leg, and pulled him away from the black abyss. He fought against the pull of the hole, taking one strained step after another, until he was close enough to the T.A.R.D.I.S. to hand the boy over to the Doctor.  
The Doctor looked at the Piper with a warm smile. "Thank you." He said to the Piper. "_We are eveeen..._" He replied ominously.  
Then he stopped struggling against the pull and flew backwards, straight into the hole, swallowed by the blackness.  
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards the T.A.R.D.I.S. controls. The wormhole started to shrink, until it finally closed with a "_plop_".  
With the influence of the Piper's flute gone, the children started to regain consciousness. They all looked a little afraid, some of the smallest started crying. The little boy the Doctor had in his arms shook his head and looked around.  
"Mommy?" He said confused.  
Sara bent down to the crying child and comported him.  
"We should get the children back to their parents." Sara said with a bright smile, holding the little child's hand in her own.  
The Doctor nodded. "And the gold." He added.


	8. The Jellybaby Paradox: part one

It was early morning...Or was it night? Did it even matter?  
Sara sat on the stairway in the control room with a hot cup of tea, waiting for the Doctor to get up.  
She had a wide smile on her face as she thought about yesterday's adventure; the smiles and cheers from both parents and children, when they were reunited, was priceless.  
She had thought seeing history unfold before her eyes would be the best thing about this new lifestyle, but yesterday she learned what was really the best thing: helping.  
She took a sip of her cup. The TARIDS hummed peacefully. She had put on her school robes again for warmth and comfort. She heard footsteps coming from behind her.  
"Morning, Doc'." she said, still a little sleep in her voice."  
The Doctor gave her a warm smile. "Please don't call me that." He said, still smiling. "Sleep well?" He added.  
She nodded, looking up at him as he stood there, next to her on the stairway. "Oh, yes! Thank you." she said warmly and added:  
"Hope you don't mind, I made some tea... it was the only thing in your kitchen I knew what was, let alone knew how to make."  
The Doctor nodded. "It's what it's there for. Are there any more?" He added, looking at her cup. She smiled up at him. "In the kettle... Do you want me to get you a cup?" She asked with a friendly smile.  
"Here hold this." she said and gave the Doctor her cup before getting up. "Oh, you don't have to." He said, and absent-mindedly took a sip form the cup. He stopped and looked at it with an embarrassed expression.  
"I'll get us both a cup." He said, and hurried towards the kitchen. "What kitchen did you use?" He asked, just out of Sara's sight.  
"There's more than one?!" she called to him and decided to tag along. It didn't take her long to catch up to him.  
"Yup. Two kitchens. Well, three, but it's been a while since I saw the third, so I'm not sure if it's still here..." He said, trailing off in his own thoughts. Sara giggled.  
"I love this place! I took the one on the right." she said and pointed left.  
The Doctor stopped, then stuck his head into the room. "Oh, there it is!" He exclaimed impressed and disappeared into the room. Sara followed. The Doctor was pouring tea into cups. She smiled at him.  
"What do you usually eat for breakfast?" she asked feeling her stomach growl. "I have some biscuits in the other... In _an_other kitchen, but they are kind of dry, and it is more fun to land the TARDIS somewhere and get a bite, wouldn't you say?" He asked with a twinkle in his eye. She laughed excitedly  
"Yes! I would totally say that." She grinned. The Doctor took a big sip of his tea. "Let's go." He said and half ran to the control room with Sara right behind him.  
He sat his cup on the controls once he got there and started pressing buttons.  
"So," he said as the whooshing sound started, "fancy a baguette? Or a croissant? France it is! And, as they say in France," he said and pulled a large handle, "Allons-y!" The Doctor laughed as the TARDIS started to shake and rumble. They were both thrown from side to side, and the Doctor just managed to catch his teacup before it fell into the controls. Suddenly the shaking stopped. The TARDIS had landed.  
Sara ran to the doors. "Can I?" she asked and opened them, not really waiting for an answer.  
As soon as the doors were opened a freezing wind hint her face. Everything was white as far as the eye could see. She stepped outside and sunk a little in the fresh snow. The wind was howling and she couldn't see she sky from all the clouds. Small lights shinned in the distance. Maybe a town?  
"It's winter!" she said with glee and watched her breath dance in the air. The Doctor, who was now at her side, looked a bit disappointed. "This isn't France..." He said to himself. Then he turned to Sara. "Wait here, I'll just go get something." He said, and vanished into the TARDIS.  
Sara picked up some of the snow in her hands. Her hands instantly becoming cold. She threw it in the air and spun around. She loved winter... apart from the wetness. Some of the snow had already started wetting her clothes, she would be soaked by the time they made it to the town.  
A little magic couldn't hurt could it? It wasn't like the Doctor was around to argue. She drew her wand and pointed it over herself.  
"_repello" _She said, making the snow repel off of her. That was that problem solved, she thought and quickly put her wand back before the Doctor returned. After a little while, the TARIDS's doors opened.  
"Here we go!" He said, and handed Sara a thick coat with a fur-trimmed hood. The Doctor had also put his long, brown coat on, which he had closed over his blue suit.  
"Oh... thanks." she said, swinging the coat over her shoulders, she then looked at the Doctor with a grin. "I'll race you to the city!" she said and pointed.  
Soon after they reached the lights. It was coming from both small and large hut-like buildings forming a little circular town.  
Some of the huts had signs like _bookstore_ or _Hunting gear_ and was in fact little stores. All the huts had windows in all sorts of colours and lights shinned from inside. It didn't take them long before they reached the centre of the circle.  
It was a large bare place, apart from a statue of what looked like a wolf chasing its own tail... only it didn't completely look like a wolf. It's mouth was longer and more beak-like, its legs were shorter and its tail sort of looked like a squirrel-tale. Under it was a golden plaque that read:  
_In honour of the great melt  
_"It's a Doolah." The Doctor said.  
"A Dewla?" Sara asked.  
"Doolah," the Doctor corrected her, "The species that live here can only survive in extreme cold. A long time ago, the temperature rose." He pointed at the plaque. "Everyone thought it was the end, but then someone saw a Doolah. They would only come out when the temperature dropped, so they have been a symbol of luck ever since." He explained. "The tail-thing is a metaphor for rebirth," he added, "they are rather religious around here."  
Sara studied the statue a little further. "That's kind of neat." She said thoughtfully as her stomach growled.  
"What do they eat around here?" she asked looking up the Doctor.  
"Let's go and find out." The Doctor replied with a smile and held out his arm for Sara to take. She locked her arm with his and together they strolled down one of the snow-covered streets.  
They walked for a while until they saw a large hut with a sign that read: _Bed and breakfast with dinner... and... bread?  
_"Let's go there!" Sara said and pointed at the odd sign.  
The Doctor looked at the rather long sign, tilted his head to the right, desperately trying to understand the lack of logic. He shrugged, as if saying _oh, well_ and together they walked in. They stepped inside through a large wooden door. Inside shinned a dim light from various lamps hanging on the walls. All the tables where round and fitted about six people each. At the end of the room was a counter and some books. It was still a little bit chilly inside but Sara chose to remove the coat, the Doctor had borrowed her, anyway.  
They were greeted by what Sara guessed was a woman. She was tall, taller than the Doctor, her skin was blue and mostly covered in darker blue fur. She wore a long black dress. Her eyes were completely black and her lips white and twisted upwards in a friendly smile.  
"Hello! May I help you?" She asked, completely unshaken by how alien both Sara and the Doctor must have looked to her.  
"Hello!" The Doctor smiled back. "A table for two?" He asked, pointing at Sara, then himself.  
Sara smiled at the alien lady who nodded and directed them to one of the free tables. She gave them both a menu-card before again nodding kindly at them and turning her attention to other costumers.  
Sara sat down by the round table and opened up the menu card, then shut it again. "I don't know what any of this is." she said with a delighted smile to the Doctor.  
The Doctor studied the card for a while, then said:  
"I think a couple of those, would do." He pointed at the second dish on the card. Sara leaned over and looked at it, forgetting she had her own menu.  
"What is that?" She asked intrigued. "It is a meat dish. Although, it isn't what you, um, what you would normally compare to meat... It's more like a kind of... Small, squiggly, almost gelatinous..." "A Jellybaby." Said a manly voice behind the two. "Exactly!" Said the Doctor, as he turned to the man. "Although it isn't..." He started, but stopped when he saw the man.  
Sara also turned to look at the stranger. He was a tall man, who looked an awful lot like a human, which surprised Sara quite a bit considering where they were. The man had wild, curly hair under a brown fedora. He had a wide grin on his face and wore a red jacket with a very, very long striped scarf around his neck.  
"Hello." The stranger said, and sat down at the table, although no one had invited him. The Doctor looked very confused. "What?" He said, looking in disbelief at the stranger. "Hello!" The stranger repeated, a lot louder than the first time.  
Sara smiled at the long-scarfed man a little amused and extended her hand to him "I'm Sara Jones!" She said.  
The man shook her hand with a wide smile. "Sara-Jane? Really? How wonderful! I used to know a Sara-Jane, you know." The man said, then shook his head. "Of course you don't, how would you? I'm the Doctor by the way." Sara looked confused at the man, then at the Doctor and pointed puzzled at him.  
"The Doctor? But that's..." she said in a wondering tone. Most likely the two men simply had the same title... but she had never heard of anyone else before who was just _the Doctor.  
_"You're the Doctor?" Sara's Doctor asked, in disbelief. "Yes, indeed! The definitive article." The man said with a big smile. "And you are?" He continued, sticking his hand out. Sara's Doctor looked confused. Then he said: "I'm, um, Alonzo." He replied and cringed. He then tried to shake the man's hand, but just as they touched, a loud crack sounded, and both men pulled their hands back. Sara looked at the two men.  
"That's odd." She said narrowing her eyes, something strange was defiantly going on... and why had the Doctor... _her_ Doctor just introduced himself as _Alonzo_? Was that really his name?


End file.
